->''"SOMEWHERE NEARBY IS COLOSSAL CAVE, WHERE OTHERS HAVE FOUND FORTUNES IN TREASURE AND GOLD, THOUGH IT IS RUMORED THAT SOME WHO ENTER ARE NEVER SEEN AGAIN. MAGIC IS SAID TO WORK IN THE CAVE. I WILL BE YOUR EYES AND HANDS. DIRECT ME WITH ONE OR TWO WORD PHRASES"''-->-- ''VideoGame/ColossalCave''

Interactive fiction games are adventure games in which the interaction is almost entirely text-based. Early games, and games from purist companies like Infocom, were nothing more than bare text, but some later offerings added pictures, sound and limited mouse input (one game, ''VideoGame/LeatherGoddessesOfPhobos'', even included plot-relevant scratch-and-sniff cards as {{Feelies}}) -- but the primary form of interaction was still through descriptive text and typed commands. The genre began with the original adventure game, ''VideoGame/ColossalCave'', and really took off in the early 1980s, with offerings such as the ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' trilogy and later, more literary works, such as ''Trinity'' and ''VideoGame/AMindForeverVoyaging''. During this period such games were almost universally known as "text adventures". Interactive Fiction is a term originally introduced by the seminal AdventureGame company Creator/{{Infocom}} to describe its line of more "serious" long-form text adventures back in the Golden Era, and has become the dominant term in the 21st century as the genre became an increasingly specialised market aimed at an increasingly "literary" audience.

The obvious reason why they were in text form is that was the only means of output available. Original Adventure was written in the programming language FORTRAN and was designed to run on the UsefulNotes/MainframesAndMinicomputers of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Graphics output wasn't possible because most places had no systems available for on-screen graphics. It was only when computers that could display color graphics became affordable in the early 1980s that the text adventure started to be replaced by various programs that used graphics capability; a few text adventures were remade in graphical form at this time. (In non-English-speaking countries, graphical adventures had far more success in the 1980s than text-only adventures, which were rarely translated and thus posed a formidable language barrier.) Many text adventures were promoted with the concept that the player's imagination was capable of producing far more extravagant and realistic images than were possible on computers of the day. And even when graphical adventure games and RPGs began to appear, text adventures were allowed to be more complex and wide-ranging than the graphical versions due to text taking up far less limited disk space and memory than graphics and sound.

Interactive Fiction was once the industry standard for long-form narratives now implemented in computer {{Role Playing Game}}s, but fell out of commercial viability during the late 1980s as text parsers were rapidly displaced by icon-and-menu and PointAndClick interfaces. Shortly after the major players disappeared from the market, a lively amateur scene sprung up on the Internet, centred around the Interactive Fiction Archive (http://www.ifarchive.org ) and the {{Usenet}} newsgroups rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction, thanks to the appearance of good-quality programming tools that have allowed recent amateur efforts to equal or exceed the quality of commercial games from the heyday of the genre. An annual contest sponsored by the community typically draws more than 20 entries per year, and the hobby continues to evolve and improve.

The MultiUserDungeon ([=MUD=]), the {{MUCK}} and the {{MUSH}} or Multi User Shared Hallucination are related games with very early origins, which emphasize the [[RolePlayingGame roleplaying aspect]] of user-generated online environments. The AdventureGame progressed directly from early text-based adventures, and is graphic-intensive but similarly story-oriented. This evolution kicked off by Interactive Fiction (also known as Text Adventure) is what eventually led to the {{MMORPG}}.

Arguably the most modern form of Interactive Fiction is the "VisualNovel" derived from {{Romance Game}}s, but in general, these stories tend to be much less interactive than the classics were, since they don't have a TextParser, or even much of an interface. If you're thinking of 3D story-driven adventure games with very little challenge or gameplay, that's EnvironmentalNarrativeGame.

This is a "video" game genre. Contrast ChooseYourOwnAdventure, which may be the "tabletop / literary" version, or InteractiveComic, which extends this trope to {{Webcomics}}.

----!!Tropes common to Interactive Fiction games include:

* AnAesop: Rarely played straight, usually warped in some way, because TrueArtIsIncomprehensible (or offensive).* ChekhovsGun* DialogueTree* EasterEgg: Typically in the form of a ShoutOut to classics of the genre.* EasyAmnesia: Sometimes [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by plot, sometimes not.* EmptyRoomPsych: The unintentional version is far more common. Knowing which author wrote the game you're playing helps a lot (good authors are probably really pulling a psych, new or bad authors probably just didn't bother to code the furniture).* ExpositionBreak* FeaturelessProtagonist* {{Feelies}}* GuessTheVerb: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in a game of same title.* HaveANiceDeath: Usually PlayedForLaughs, again the horror genre is an exception.* InformingTheFourthWall* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: Typically enforced by a player character who doesn't ''want'' to climb over the fence, for some reason.* InventoryManagementPuzzle: Sometimes averted; a player's [[BagOfHolding holdall]] or infinite inventory is common in newer games, as a courtesy to players.* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Well, it wouldn't be very interactive if all the story took place at once, now would it?* KleptomaniacHero: Even worse than in video games, since item interaction is the basis for most IF puzzles.* LastLousyPoint: Originating in the ur-IF game ''VideoGame/ColossalCave''.* LateToTheTragedy* LockedDoor: Though many subversions exist -- the door may require a password, or there might be [[DungeonBypass another way through]], or you might just have to [[BulletHoleDoor destroy the door]].* TheMaze: A DiscreditedTrope in InteractiveFiction.* MultipleEndings: Mostly in recent games.* NintendoHard: Part of the genre's charm for many players, though games do range in difficulty and some of them can't be gotten into an {{Unwinnable}} state. Many games are notorious for being this at the very beginning of the game, where either through intent or poor writing, there is little information given as to how to get out of the very first area. The text adventure adaptation of ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' is one notorious example as it begins in the middle of an action sequence with little clue given to the player as to [[RoomEscapeGame how to get out of it]].* {{NPC}}* RoomEscapeGame: Somewhat discredited. However, recent IF authors have done plenty to [[SubvertedTrope subvert]], [[InvertedTrope invert]], or otherwise [[PlayingWithATrope play with the trope]].** Actually, per NintendoHard, above, there are many IF games both vintage and recent that begin with this scenario, even if the game as a whole isn't part of the genre.* SchrodingersGun* ScrollingText* SecondPersonNarration: Ubiquitous, to the point where ''not'' using it is experimental.** Specifically, second-person present tense.** Averted by all the Scott Adams / Adventure International games, and others inspired by them, which all used first person: ''"I'm in a forest clearing. What shall I do now?"''* StrategyGuide* TakeYourTime: Virtually all text games are turn-based, so timing doesn't matter. However, some games avert it with "timed" (turn-sensitive) puzzles to increase the difficulty. (''A Change in the Weather'' is one of the hardest; make ONE wrong move and the game is lost.)* TalkToEveryone: If it's possible to TALK or ASK or TELL or SHOW at all.* TextParser: Originated the concept.* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Popularized in the VideoGame/{{Zork}} games, still common in later works. "Serious" games tend not to have a million ways to kill you, except in the horror genre.* TimedMission: A number of games, including the original ''Colossal Cave'', have some element of this, usually by way of a torch or lamp that has only a finite amount of fuel or battery power. Once it gives out and you're left in the dark, you're done. For seasoned players, "LAMP OFF" (or equivalent) became a default command the moment they entered an area where illumination wasn't required, to preserve the resource as much as possible. Made rather cruel in some versions of ''Colossal Cave'' (such as the version made for Apple II which was titled ''Microsoft Adventure'') where the only way to extend the lamp's life was to spend one of the game's treasures on new batteries at a vending machine hidden in the game's maze area, making it impossible to get a perfect treasure-collection score on the game.* UnwinnableByDesign: Used to be standard. Generally somewhat frowned upon in modern games, though there are some much-praised exceptions. [[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Cruelty_scale Zarf's cruelty scale]], quoted on the UnwinnableByDesign trope page, was designed for interactive fiction.** For example, "[[http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=ii0k5l53vhghqyh6 Broken Legs]]," the second-place game in the 2009 [=IFComp=], was cruel, but "[[http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=jf5zkjj3jqfllwcn Rover's Day Out]]" and "[[http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=3oez457dpng7ktzb Snowquest]]," the first- and third-place games, were both polite in that any death could be undone. In fact, most of the latter two games are merciful, in that you can't do anything to prevent yourself from being able to reach the ending.* {{Vaporware}}: Plenty of old ones, since graphics killed the text-game stars. Production of vaporware is ongoing, since text games can be produced by single artists, and coding is a huge project. The IF archives are full of half-finished orphans.* {{Walkthrough}}: Optional. Some games come with, some don't. Lack of walkthroughs contributes to some of the mystery in old {{Vaporware}} games. Some of the earliest "game guide" books to be published were walkthroughs of text adventures.* WelcomeToCorneria: Common with {{NPC}}s, especially in early games, but becoming used less and less. (VideoGame/{{Galatea}} might be the strongest single-author aversion out there.)* WikiRule: [[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page IFWiki]].* WithThisHerring: Best intro ever: "The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock." (from Dan Schmidt's ''VideoGame/ForAChange'')* YouCantGetYeFlask: Particular to this one genre.

The [[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page IFWiki]] has its own [[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Category:Tropes page on IF Tropes]].